In the end, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a stupid film that ignores the potent ideas seemingly right at the surface in favor of unimaginative action and bland characters.

While Oz: The Great and Powerful has its writing issues, it's far more satisfying than Alice in Wonderland and I can confirm that it went over like gangbusters with the packed general audience crowd I saw it with. All the signs indicate that it is in it for the long haul.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey basically opened like a Lord of the Rings film, give or take various variables. Its $84.7 million estimated debut clobbered the December record.

It is a visually glorious and occasionally powerful achievement that, if possible, should be seen in its IMAX format. To use a cliche suited to the film, Cloud Atlas reaches for the moon yet ends up in the stars. But what beautiful stars they are.

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is the first Tsui Hark film to be shot in Imax 3D, starring Jet Li. Okay, stop salivating and sit back down, we've got work to do.

The whole 'series finale' gimmick promised nothing more than the question of whether or not Batman survived this final film, a question that has surely been answered in a million blog posts by this time.

The Dark Knight Rises' performance should be closely monitored in terms of what should be considered the top-tier potential for any and all other comic book adaptations for the near future.

Despite a top-flight cast, impeccable production values, and a number of emotional beats that genuinely work, The Dark Knight Rises doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it pales in comparison to what came before.

I'd argue that Sony may have won the battle with The Amazing Spider-Man (it's not a flop by any means), but they may have lost the war.

With Prometheus, those expecting a game-changing science-fiction masterwork will be painfully disappointed. Those expecting merely a top-notch variation on the sci-fi "And Then There Were None" template will be only slightly disappointed.

At the end of 2011, many media analysts were predicting the demise of movie theaters, but the reality is this: the movie theater exhibition business really doesn't look to be in that much trouble.

To the Arctic, like the cable series Frozen Planet, provides a precious historical record. At some point in the future, films like this will provide the only visual record of polar bears, caribou and other Arctic fauna that will eventually disappear.

What says Christmas Spirit more than nuclear holocaust, life-or-death chases in an automated car park, and scaling the world's tallest building? Maybe that's why Paramount scheduled the release of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol for this most festive of seasons.

Noted quibbles aside, Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol is a splendidly exciting piece of mainstream entertainment. It is a dazzling action picture that genuinely impresses.

What could have been a cheap and easy spin-off is instead a surprisingly engaging and richly constructed adventure film.

There were two major releases this weekend, and both of them more-or-less did what was expected of them. Disney/Dreamworks unleashed the robot-boxing/father-son drama Real Steel, which easily topped the weekend.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II is a very good film in the franchise, and a very good fantasy film in its own right. It is worth our attention and our praise.